After the fuss of criticism for his failure to comply with the quarantine rules for Covid-19, António Horta-Osório resigns from the presidency of the Credit Suisse Group, a role in which he is replaced by Axel P. Lehmann, arriving from Ubs, ” with immediate effect », as a note from the Swiss bank points out. Horta-Osório, the same statement adds, comes out “following an investigation commissioned by the board of directors”.
The story hit the headlines at the beginning of December, when some press reports reported that at the end of November Horta-Osório had not complied with the obligation of ten days of solitary confinement after returning to Switzerland from the United Kingdom. The Portuguese president had thus flown with a private jet to the Iberian Peninsula and then moved to New York, where the bank had met the board at the beginning of December.
«I am sorry – said Horta-Osório – that some of my personal behaviors have put the bank in difficulty and compromised my ability to represent it internally and externally. I therefore believe that my resignation is in the interest of the bank and its stakeholders, at this crucial moment ».
A arrival from Lloyds Banking Group, 57-year-old Horta-Osório rose to the top of Credit Suisse just last April, as part of a strategy that aimed, among other things, at recovering positions after the Swiss bank became involved in some financial scandals, such as the collapse of the Archegos fund and the collapse of the Anglo-Australian company Greensill, events that had cost Credit Suisse billionaire provisions on its balance sheet. The new president, as mentioned, is Lehmann, a former executive of the Swiss bank UBS, who already joined the board of directors of Credit Suisse last October.